House Passes FAA Funding, but Senate's Coburn Threatens to Block Bill

Fighting for jobs and the FAA funding bill, members from Local 13500 and the coalition Penn Action protest outside U.S. Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick's office near Philadelphia. The group peacefully went inside and spoke with staff. Click here for a video.

Below: CWA members leaflet at the Sacramento Airport, one of many events nationwide alerting the public that another FAA shutdown was looming unless Congress passed funding for the agency.

Pressured by CWA's exhaustive leafleting and lobbying, U.S. House Republicans passed temporary funding to keep the FAA open, but now it's a senator who's decided to play politics with the agency.

In an uproar over money for bicycle paths, the Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn is threatening to block the FAA bill, as well as the critical bill funding highway and transit programs. The highway bill requires that states use 3 percent of federal road funds for bike lanes and other traffic enhancements.

"Senator Coburn's concern about bike paths has absolutely nothing to do with the FAA and he knows it," CWA said in a statement Thursday. "Once again, America's first class aviation system is being held hostage by a political party that talks about creating jobs, but when given opportunity only wants to shut them down. Worse still, thousands of dedicated FAA employees and tens of thousands more construction workers are once again pawns in a Washington insiders game."

For two weeks this summer, the failure of Congress to pass FAA funding led the agency to shut down and furlough 4,000 employees and nearly 100,000 constructions workers on airport projects nationwide.

House Republicans held up the bill to try to force federal officials to repeal a new rule allowing for fair, democratic union elections for airline workers. In the past, workers who didn't vote were counted as "no" votes. The National Mediation Board changed the rule in 2010 so that only the votes cast would be counted, the standard that applies to all other American elections.

For weeks, CWA and AFA-CWA members have held news conferences, protested outside lawmakers' home district offices and leafleted at the U.S. Capitol and at airports around the country, helping the public understand what's at stake.

Although AFA-CWA and other aviation unions are pushing Congress to pass a real FAA budget, instead of what is now the 22nd temporary extension of funds, the House action was preferable to another shutdown. The bill will provide funding through January 31, 2012.

"The House passage of a four-month, clean extension for funding the FAA is a step in the right direction," AFA-CWA leaders said. "AFA remains resolute in our advocacy for long-term funding of the FAA."